


Nothing to See

by perhapsaperson



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: M/M, POV Outsider, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-19 08:00:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29623119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perhapsaperson/pseuds/perhapsaperson
Summary: John and Rodney, from the perspective of another crew member
Relationships: Rodney McKay/John Sheppard
Comments: 11
Kudos: 47
Collections: Stargate Winter Fic Exchange 2020-21





	Nothing to See

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Goddess47](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goddess47/gifts).



> Really sorry for being late, this semesters been especially draining. I hope you like it anyway!

Everyday life as a scientist in Atlantis wasn’t quite as exciting as Dr Sarah Mueller had pictured it when she left Earth. Sure, there were days when you were called on to investigate alien technology on some distant planet, or go through some mind-blowing new research they’d unearthed in the ancient database, those were the days she lived for. Most days, on the other hand, were more like today. Sitting in a half-empty lab on a Saturday afternoon, going through pages and pages of near-identical measurements and calculations until her eyes blurred.

It’s probably because of the tedium of her current assignment that she glances up from her screen at the slightest distraction, desperate for anything to take her attention away from the never-ending spreadsheets.

The latest thing to distract Mueller on this fine day was the unexpected arrival of Colonel John Sheppard.

Not an unusual event in itself, and most of the others in the lab glance up briefly before going back to their work. Mueller, out of sheer desperation to avoid her work for another few seconds, keeps watching. 

She watches as he makes his way over to the back corner of the room, where Dr McKay is completely absorbed in his work. Mueller and the rest of her coworkers stay away from that corner when they can avoid it at the risk of interrupting Dr McKay, a risky business even on the best days.

Dr Mckay doesn’t seem to notice until Sheppard drops his stuff on the bench across from him, at which point he looks up with a frown.

“What are you doing,” he asks flatly.

“Mission report,” Sheppard responds, offering no further explanation.

McKay looks unimpressed. “Okay, but why are you doing it here?”

Sheppard shrugs. “Why not? You get tired of your quarters after a while.”

McKay looks skeptical, but seems to decide that whatever groundbreaking research he’s working on is more important, and promptly goes back to working and ignoring the rest of the world.

Mueller, though, keeps watching them. As soon as Dr McKay refocuses on his computer, Sheppard looks up and watches him for a long moment, an expression on his face that Mueller can’t quite place. Soon enough, though, he shakes his head and turns back to his own work.

Mueller is, of course, intrigued.

\- - -

After that day, it becomes something of a routine. Every few days, Sheppard comes to the science lab and, without comment, sits across from McKay to do some variety of paperwork. And every time, McKay asks him why he’s here as if it’s still unusual. As if he hasn’t noticed the pattern.

Mueller has no choice but to wonder why.

“You notice how often he comes in here?” She comments, one day. She’s across the room and can’t hear them talking, but she’s seen this cycle enough times to guess what they’re saying.

Reid barely looks up from the device he’s trying to reassemble. “What? The colonel?”

Mueller nods. Reid looks over at the pair, bored. “I dunno. I guess. Why does it matter?”

“Aren’t you the least bit curious why he suddenly wants to spend so much time in the lab?”

Reid pretends to consider it for a moment then shoots her a deadpan look. “No.”

“Oh, you’re so boring,” she scoffs. 

“Why should I care where Sheppard decides to spend his time?” Reid asks absently, back to fiddling with his gadget.

“That was all Sanchez wanted to talk about last week,” she says. “We had theories.”

“Unfortunate for you that he’s offworld today, then.”

“Tragic, actually.”

Meuller turns back to her work, looking back up a moment later as she realizes she’s missing about half the data. Sighing, she trudges across the room to download the rest.

Still as she moves towards Dr McKay’s corner of the room, she can’t help listening in on their quiet interaction.

As she waits, Sheppard looks up from his laptop and pulls something out of his pocket.

“Here, by the way.” Sheppard pulls something small and shiny out of his pocket and tosses it to McKay before looking back down at his screen.

It’s an easy throw, but McKay, unprepared, struggles not to drop it. He stares at the object suspiciously for moment before looking back up at Sheppard. It turns out to be a candy bar, Mueller notes.

“Why?” McKay asks, with his usually tactlessness.

Sheppard shrugs, not looking up. “Just thought you’d like it.”

This answer doesn’t seem to satisfy McKay, who takes another moment looking between Sheppard and the candy bar as if he’s trying to solve some kind of puzzle.

Sheppard, on the other hand, keeps staring at his computer screen as if completely occupied by his ever-present paperwork, but from his vantage point Mueller can see that there’s nothing open. She suppresses the urge to roll her eyes.

Finally, McKay unwraps the bar and cautiously takes a bite, still looking suspicious. Mueller doesn’t miss Sheppard’s quick smile before he opens his mission report in earnest.

Mueller makes her way back to her own bench, gears turning in her head. She looks up at the Sheppard and McKay one last time before getting back to her own work. At this point, McKay is periodically giving Sheppard suspicious looks over his computer while Sheppard transparently pretends not to notice. 

There’s something happening there, she’s sure of it. 

\- - -

As she sits in the lab working frantically on a new set of calculations late on a Friday night - or, by now, early Saturday morning - she wishes, not for the first time, that she’d stop leaving these reports for the last minute.

By now she’s the last person left, save of course Dr McKay, who’s working on some improvement to the power grid at this obscene hour. 

Mueller is at the point of considering whether ingesting even more caffeine would give her a heart attack, she’s startled out of her focus when someone new enters the room. The new person turns out to be Sheppard, and Mueller wonders with some amusement what he’s doing here at this hour.

McKay seems to share her curiosity.

“What are you doing here?” He asks bluntly.

Sheppard shrugs. “Couldn’t sleep.”

“So you decided to come here? Out of all the places in the city, why here?”

“I don’t know,” Sheppard says, defensiveness creeping into his tone.

“You’re here all the time now, why?”

“I don’t know,” Sheppard snaps. Then, after a beat of silence, “Do you want me to leave?”

“I - well, no -”

“Then why the interrogation?”

“Because,” McKay nearly shouts. “It’s weird! You’ve been acting weird for weeks and I don’t get it!”

“You know what? I think you do know why, you’re just afraid to admit it!”

“I don’t think -”

Both of them suddenly seem to notice that Mueller is in the room with them, awkwardly cutting off their conversation while she tries to pretend she hadn’t noticed them.

Then, in an attempt to cut through the tension that suddenly fills the room, she speaks up with a far too cheerful tone. “Hey, I was just about to go get myself another coffee, you guys want anything?”

They both glance around awkwardly for a moment before McKay replies. “Yeah, sure. Thanks.”

“Cool,” she says, before hurrying out of the room.

They restart their conversation again before she’s entirely out of earshot. 

“I don’t understand your problem -” Sheppard says.

“smth,” the last thing she hears before turning the corner.

She takes her time making the coffee, hoping to give them enough time to resolve whatever this was. To her, it seems obvious what’s going on, but even from the little contact she’s had with the two of them, she knows McKay and Sheppard aren’t the best at communicating, especially about emotions. Sheppard is awkward and evasive, McKay is snappy, abrasive, stubborn, especially when he’s afraid.  
She wonders if they’ll manage to talk it out this time, or just make things worse. She hopes for the former. She’s rooting for those two.  
Eventually, she runs out of reasons to procrastinate, and she really does need to finish those calculations before the morning shift, so she makes her way back.  
She walks quietly, instinct while the rest of the city sleeps. As she approaches the lab, she can just see through the open door. Sheppard and McKay are in the back of the lab, pressed together against the wall, kissing. Mueller feels herself break into a grin. Reid is gonna love this.

To avoid making things awkward again, she quietly backs up a few steps and approaches again, as slowly and loudly as possible. They still almost miss her, springing apart just before she enters the room. 

“Got the coffee,” she says, just to fill the silence.

Sheppard nods, the two of them stand barely a meter apart, faces flushed and red, awkward expressions.

Mueller can’t quite fight back a smile as she deposits the coffee on the bench in front of them.

As she makes her way back to her own work, the two of them share a series of looks.

“You wanna -” Sheppard nods his head towards the door.

“Sure, yeah. Yes,” Rodney says.

Mueller barely manages to suppress her laugh until they’re gone.

**Author's Note:**

> Pains me to write Atlantis fic without including Teyla and Ronon, but I couldn't figure out a way to include them without breaking the flow. Sorry if this is still a little disjointed, it's been like a year since I actually wrote anything, I'm a little out of practice. Sorry again for the delay, hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
